Opposition politicians argue that high prices are severely affecting Poles in the run-up to Easter. This is expected to be the most expensive holiday season in history.
According to members of the Law and Justice party (PiS), the government led by Donald Tusk is incapable of conducting effective economic policy, which, they claim, will result in the most expensive Easter in history.
At a press conference held on Wednesday in front of the Hala Mirowska market in Warsaw, PiS parliamentary club leader Mariusz Błaszczak stated that Easter is “a joyful holiday, but unfortunately, this joy is being overshadowed by the dilemma of how to cope with soaring prices.” The former Deputy Prime Minister explained that the PiS government had employed available measures to reduce prices and reminded the public that in 2022 the VAT rate on basic foodstuffs was reduced to 0%.
Also, present at the conference, PiS MP Zbigniew Kuźmiuk noted that “one only needs to take a walk through Hala Mirowska” to see that the prices of such food items have increased by “several dozen percent” compared to 2024. According to Kuźmiuk, PiS had demonstrated during its time in office how it was possible to “influence prices, whereas the new ruling coalition believes that inflation can be curbed by replacing the president of the Central Statistical Office (GUS).” He added that this change “has not helped; inflation remains high.”
Another PiS MP participating in the conference, Andrzej Śliwka, stated that both residents of Warsaw and Poland more broadly “can see that goods are expensive in shops, fuel is expensive at petrol stations, and we now have the most expensive government since 1989.”
In response to a question about whether the average annual inflation rate of 14.4% in 2022 and 11.4% in 2023 was the result of the PiS government’s ineffective economic policies, Kuźmiuk emphasized that “these were the consequences of the war” in Ukraine. He added that inflation at the time was the result of a sudden spike in energy commodity prices “caused by Putin’s policies, so these are incomparable circumstances.” He stressed that at present, “there is no major external shock.”